Final Game for MSU Represents Chance for Real Change
The Michigan State Spartans control their own destiny, with one final game remaining in the 2024 season.
Jonathan Smith’s Spartans are 5-6 after a narrow victory over the Purdue Boilermakers. They will now take on the Rutgers Scarlet Knights for a chance to play in a bowl game.
It has not been a smooth first year for Smith in East Lansing. The team has dealt with a pile of injuries and several losses in winnable games.
Some MSU fans are frustrated with how things have gone. Before beating Purdue, the Spartans had lost six of their last seven games. That is arguably inexcusable, no matter your talent on the field.
However, the season has not yet been lost. A win vs. Rutgers will put things back on track for Smith’s rebuild.
In the last two seasons before Smith arrived, things were dysfunctional in East Lansing. The Spartans missed a bowl game in 2022 after an excellent 2021 season, and then Mel Tucker was fired early in the 2023 season, leaving the team in disarray.
Smith took on a rudderless program requiring much work to clean up. Even though some fans have recalibrated their expectations and have wanted more out of Smith’s team this season, things are still on par with what was expected in the offseason and, in some cases, even better.
For one, the defense has vastly improved since 2023. Defensive Coordinator Joe Rossi took on a unit that was near the bottom of college football in many defensive statistics. Rossi has largely the same team from 2023 in the upper half of those same stats.
It has been a rough go for Aidan Chiles in his first full season as a starter. In a backup role at Oregon State, Chiles was efficient and explosive. There have been flashes of brilliance with the sophomore, but also many moments of head-scratching and frustrating mistakes.
However, his growth is obvious. He has thrown four touchdowns in his last two games and has not turned the ball over. A full offseason could bring a much-improved Chiles in 2025.
MSU fans want to see winning football. It has been several years since there was a consistent winner in East Lansing. Smith took on a reclamation project in Corvallis, turning the Beavers into a double-digit win program at one point.
With the resources to do so at MSU, a bowl game in Smith’s first year would mean he is on track to make that happen for the Spartans as well.
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